This survey focuses on issues related to the military
takeover in the Soviet Union and the removal of Soviet President
Mikhail Gorbachev from power. Respondents were asked if they approved
of the way George Bush was handling the situation in the Soviet
Union, whether the events in the Soviet Union posed a major threat to
world peace, whether the economic and political reforms in the Soviet
Union would continue under the new leaders, whether the new leaders
could be trusted to honor the Soviet Union's international treaties,
how likely it was that the Soviet Union would go back to hard-line
communism, and whether the people who took power in the Soviet Union
would be able to remain in power over the long term. Respondents were
also questioned about whether the United States should cut long-range
nuclear missiles, scale back sales of wheat to the Soviet Union, and
help the republics that wanted to break away from the Soviet Union.
They were also asked if they thought the Cold War would start again.
Background information on respondents includes political alignment,
age, sex, and state/region of residence.

Households were selected by random digit dialing. Within
household, the respondent selected was the adult living in the
household who last had a birthday and who was at home at the time of
the interview.